About the Expedition
Montana team to retrace Powell’s journey and
document the state of the Green and Colorado Rivers

A Montana based expedition of web designers, conservationists,
and journalists will retrace the routes of Powell and Holmstrom
to chronicle the 1,000-mile journey, and sort through the host of
environmental and social issues that have woven around the
West’s most prominent drainage along the way.

By Josh Mahan

It’s been exactly 70 years since Buzz Holmstrom’s historic descent of the Green and Colorado rivers, retracing John Wesley Powell’s exploratory of the nation’s most rugged and desolate country, and becoming the first person to run all of the rapids along the way.

This year a Montana expedition of web designers, conservationists, and journalists will retrace the routes of Powell and Holmstrom to chronicle the 1,000-mile journey, and sort through the host of environmental and social issues that have woven around the West’s most prominent drainage along the way.

The two most obvious changes since the descents of Powell and Holmstrom are the addition of 270-miles of flat water because of backup behind the Flaming Gorge and Glen Canyon dams. The team will launch Sept. 1 and paddle across both of these reservoirs on their journey from Green River, Wyoming, to Lake Mead, Nevada.

The river has changed, but so has the equipment. Solar panels will provide the juice to power satellite communications needed to upload daily articles documenting the state of the river to our website, downtheriver.org. Here visitors will experience the adventure in real time, viewing explorations of western water use, dam removal, Native-American affairs, and low-carbon lifestyles. Finding and documenting locations where satellite communications can be established will be essential.

The expedition has many goals which are more clearly outline on our goals page found here.

The team’s foundation is Bob Scholl, a web designer, photographer and river-runner who obtained a Grand Canyon permit and decided why only float the weekender stretch? He enlisted renowned conservationist Mike Roselle in an unlikely meeting. From there journalists Josh Mahan and Jennifer Sauer jumped on board to round out the core.

Using catarafts our team will be out on the water for 10 weeks using only human, gravity or wind power to get down the river or the over 250 miles of reservoirs. We are searching for gear, food, and your help to make this historic expedition float. Every piece of the puzzle helps. For more info on how you can help click here.

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Solar panels will provide the juice to power satellite communications needed to upload daily articles documenting the state of the river to our website.

Website visitors will experience the adventure in real time, viewing explorations of western water use, dam removal, Native-American affairs, and low-carbon lifestyles.

Finding and documenting locations where satellite communications can be established will be essential.